🍄 #59 - We will have psychedelic rabbis and Jewish, psychedelic therapy. (Just wait…)
Good morning! I hope you had some time to enjoy the holidays!
So far, The New Health Club is addressing psychedelics as tools to treat mental health conditions. But there is another topic developing around psychedelics these days: the relationship between religion and psychedelics.
There is Brian Muraresku’s book “The Immortality Key” talking about the ancient Greeks and Catholics using psychedelic substances for religious rituals. There is Joe Welker dealing with the topic at Harvard Divinity School in terms of Catholics and psychedelic experiences. There is Adriana Kertzer from the Plant Medicine Law Group engaging in the topic of Judaism & psychedelics.
But how does the connection between religion, spirituality, and psychedelic substances work? Will we experience a new idea of religion in general? Will old conflicts between religions disappear one day, if we can experience oneness? Is there a new generation of psychedelic rabbis, priests, and clergy coming our way?
Judaism and Psychedelics, it’s a thing!
The Jewish Psychedelic Summit in May is exploring these questions. What is the connection between psychedelics and Judaism? Join a global conversation exploring psychedelics, Judaism, ritual, healing, and spirituality!
The Summit Creators are well-known names in the new psychedelic field. Natalie Lyla Ginsberg from MAPS, Madison Margolin from “Double Blind” and Zac Kamnetz have put together an amazing panel of speakers, including Rick Strassman, the DMT expert, Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS and the amazing Dr. Julie Holland.
Soooo next week our new season starts with...a psychedelic rabbi.
Next week, on April 15th, we welcome Zac Kamenetz as our first guest for the new season. The big question in Zac’s work is called: Can psychedelics heal the jews?
Zac is a rabbi, community leader, and aspiring psychedelic chaplain based in Berkeley, CA. He holds an MA in Biblical literature and languages from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union and received rabbinic ordination in 2012. He is also the founder of the
Shefa Foundation, for Psychedelic therapy grounded in Jewish spirituality. He was part of a psilocybin study that dosed clergy of various traditions with psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in psilocybin mushrooms.
“I would like to be the first rabbi to become certified as a psychedelic-assisted therapist.” says Kamenetz.
But this is just the beginning. So be excited for next week, when you can hear the results of our conversation around a new way of understanding religion, psychedelics, and the future of (dosed) spirituality.
Articles & Books
https://doubleblindmag.com/lchaim-psilocybin-reigniting-judaism-with-psychedelics/